It’s five a.m. and all I can see in the pre-dawn is the light from my headlamp as I head across the desert. My husband and business partner is waiting for me at one of the famous sandstone arches in the Alabama Hills. This arch is hidden from view and not easily found without a guide. It is the first morning of our Eastern Sierra photo workshop.

Behind me, four hopeful photographers follow in the 4am darkness. It’s my job to guide them through the sage-and-stone-scattered tundra, through and around large boulders, across a stream bed and up a small hill to the arch.

The plan was for me to look for my husband’s flash light across the dark desert. For the first 10 minutes or so I didn’t see it. As we came close to the wash (a dry seasonal stream bed), I noticed Mark’s light. We headed down into the wash and back up the other side to the arch.

Light Painting

As we set up our cameras and tripods, Mark starts to explain about the light painting and how we are going to capture this amazing arch in this challenging lighting situation. We spent some great moments shooting in the predawn light, photographing and “painting” the arch with a broad beamed light. In the time between the darkness and the arrival of the dawn, I took this picture called, “Waiting for the Light” which really describes this incredible morning during this photo expedition.

The Eastern Sierra is one of the best places for photography in California.

We’ve hiked, biked, backpacked, fished, cross-country skied, snowmobiled, and snow-shoed across those mountains multiple times. We never tire of them. Every visit is different and each time there are incredible opportunities for creativity. We know the area like the back of our hand, and we’re always excited to share this beautiful area with our clients. We’ve spent many years in the back country of the Sierra Nevada. The trips we take with our clients are tame compared to some of the excursions we’ve together in the past.

What I love about this photo expedition is we help people connect with their photographic imagination.

Our clients start to see compositions and exposures on their own and begin to sink into the creative “zone”.

After the sun rose and we finished our breakfast, we headed up Highway 395 in search of more photographic compositions. We prefer to shoot in the late afternoon for the best light. We had a few hours to make it to our next stop, the Bristlecone Pines.

This famous area is home to some of the oldest living organisms on the planet. A few trees here are over 5,000 years old! They make compelling subjects and with the right light, make beautiful images. The trees are located at 10,000’ in elevation, so it takes a little time to get used to the altitude.

As we puff up the trail at 10,000′, the old trees show themselves. They never fail to delight with their twisted, gnarled exteriors.

For us, sunset is the ideal time for landscape photography. On this particular trip it was more spectacular than ever. The color of the sky developed into the raspberry red that is so characteristic of the Eastern Sierra. And the snowcapped mountains in the distance made for a complete composition.

How to Shoot Bristlecones at Sunset

For this particular exposure, it’s really important to wait for that moment of light just as the sun sets. If you’re lucky, the reflection of the sun’s rays against the clouds can bring out some amazing colors.

I always double check that my foreground and background are tack sharp by focusing about 4’ ahead of me (or about 1/3 up into the frame). I then set my aperture to F18 to give me the widest depth of field.

When your camera is set on aperture priority, it sets your shutter speed for you. This is when you take a meter reading off the sky being careful to watch your histogram for any over or underexposed areas in your image.

In this particular picture, I was able to bring up the darker areas of the tree in Lightroom and highlight some of the beautiful patterns in the gnarled bark. (If you’d like more information on how to do these types of settings in Photoshop or Lightroom, we offer online and in-person classes on this software.)